Protective suit

ABSTRACT

A protective suit worn to prevent spread of infectious agents comprising a coat and hood made from disposable paper and having closures consisting of pressure sensitive adhesive strips which bond together the overlapping edges of the openings which permit donning the suit. The adhesive strips are protected with foil until it is desired to close the openings after donning.

United States Patent 1191 Siegmann [541 PROTECTIVE SUIT [22] Filed:

[76] Inventor: Oteried Siegmann, Buntweg 17a,

Hannover-Kirchrode, Germany Aug. 30, 1971 21 App1-.No.: 175,904

11 1 3,736,595 1 1 June 5,1973

3,496,572 2/1970 Herzig ..2/2 3,529,594 9/1970 Charnley 2/2 FOREIGNPATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,140,823 12/1962 Germany ..2/2

Primary Examiner-A1fred R. Guest Attorney-Molinare, Allegretti, Newitt &Witcoff [57] ABSTRACT A protective suit worn to prevent spread ofinfectious agents comprising a coat and hood made from disposable paperand having closures consisting of pressure sensitive adhesive stripswhich bond together the overlapping edges of the openings which permitdonning the suit. The adhesive strips are protected with foil until itis desired to close the openings after donning.

7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures I BACKGROUND OF'THE INVENTION The inventionrelates to a protective suit of disposable material, contributing to theprevention of entry and the spreading of pathogenic and infectiousagents.

This spread of contaminating agents has always been a serious problem ofhygiene. Among possible carriers of infection, human beings occupy animportant place, those groups of persons being especially at risk who,because of their work, frequently come into direct contact withpotential sources of infectious agents or enter contaminatedsurroundings. Such-persons include doctors and persons responsible forcare in medicine, veterinary surgeons in veterinary work and skilledpersons in the field of animal breeding and foodstuffs. For all suchpersons who go from one patient to another or who move amongst animals,the risk of spreading or transferring pathogenic agents is especiallygreat.

Although these facts are well-known in the relevant circles, legallybased regulations only come in, for example, human medicine when adramatically spreading infectious illness, such as smallpox, issuspected. With other infectious illnesses, such as influenza, whichadmittedly have in general less serious results, but nevertheless can beserious for some patients, the doctor is usually satisfied with washinghis hands after visiting a patient. Undoubtedly the great danger thenoccurs, that the doctor may receive germs adhering to his outer clothingfrom the previous visit and so initiate the outbreak of an infection onhis next visit.

In veterinary medicine people are more aware of the risk of transferringcontaminating agents indicated in the above example, because,especially'when animals are kept in large numbers,the spreading ofpathogenic agents can, due to the high density of animals in a smallspace, lead to an explosive outbreak of illness. The dust settlingunavoidably on the outer clothing of persons visiting animals is avisible indication of this-danger, since dust particles are carriers forthe collection of pathogenic agents.

To counteract this danger, it has become usual in veterinary work, inaddition to using other measures for presenting infection fromspreading, such as disinfected mats and over-shoes, to put on aprotective suit before entering a building containing animals.

THE PRIOR ART ing, and destroyed afterone use. This eliminates thecleaning costs of re-usable protective clothing; to the remainingunchanged shortcomings must however be added the impermeability of thematerial to air and the resultant unpleasant heat build-up, which mayeven be injurious to the wearers health after long periods. A furtherparticular disadvantage when used in connection with animals is that thelight reflected from plastic material disturbs the animals.

THE INVENTION According to the present invention there is provided aprotective suit of disposable material, comprising a coat having acontinuous adhesive strip in the vicinity of. one edge of the openingslit of the coat which, after removal of a protective adhesive foil fromthe adhesive strip constitutes a non-detachable closure for thepressed-together edges of the opening slit.

Preferably, at least a partial region at the region at the perimeter ofthe sleeve ends of the coat a further adhesive strip is provided havinga protective adhesive foil which on removal from the adhesive stripconsti tutes a non-detachable fastening of the sleeve end folded to sealaround the wrist of the wearer.

Conveniently, the protective suit may further comprise a hood with aneck-covering extension piece and that at one of the overlapping frontends of the extension piece an adhesive strip is provided as anondetachable closure.

The protective suit according to the invention thus insures that only asmall portion of the wearers face remains free. If hands are alsocovered with protective gloves and feet and legs with over-shoes tocalf-height, the possibility of contamination of the outdoor clothing ofthe person wearing the protective suit of the invention is almostexcluded by this far reaching covering of the whole body surface. Anyinfectious agents adhering to the outdoor clothing are also preventedfrom reaching the environment.

A further important advantage of the protective suit of the invention isthat it can only be removed by tearing, so that re-use is impossible.This also affords a method of control, firstly through inspection by thepatient or animals owner and secondly by counting the items of unusedprotective suiting to establish whether a new suit has in fact been puton for each visit to a patient or location of animals. This possibilityof checking improves the certainly that a change of clothing has beenmade in each required case.

In one preferred embodiment of the protective suit, it is made of paper,which may be :reinforced with plastics. Apart from relatively favorableproduction cost this material possesses the advantage of being impermeable to germs, non-light reflecting, and able to breathe."Particularly for use with animals, an advantage of this material is thatit can be dyed to colors which relax animals psychologically. Similarly,initials, etc., can easily be printed.

With regard to disinfecting, a further advantage lies in thecombustibility of the material, since burning is the safest method ofsterilization.

EXAMPLE An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way ofexample only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a protective suit in the openposition, and

FIG. 2 is a similar view to FIG. 1 showing the protective suit in thepartially closed position.

The protective suit shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises an ankle lengthcoat 1 having a hood 2 with a neckcovering extension 3. In the region ofone edge of the opening slit of the coat 1, a continuouspressuresensitive adhesive strip 4 is provided, which is covered beforethe suit is used by a protective adhesive foil 5, shown partly removedin FIG. 1. Further adhesive strips, also designated 4, and likewisecovered before use by protective adhesive foils 5, are provided at thesleeve ends of the coat 1 and at one of the front ends 6, overlapping inthe closed condition, of the extension 3 of hood 2. After eachprotective adhesive foil is removed, a sealed and thus germ-impermeable,nondetachable closure is produced at the stated positions. Apart fromthe advantages of the protective suit already mentioned, this type ofclosure possesses the further advantage that the edges or parts of thesuit to be closed can be overlapped so far that the suit immediatelyfits wearers of difi'erent sizes.

What I claim is:

l. A protective suit of disposable material comprising a coat having acontinuous adhesive strip in the vicinity of one edge of the openingslit of the coat, said strip being covered by a removable protectiveadhesive foil, the strip constituting a non detachable closure for thepressed-together edges of said opening slit after said foil'has beenremoved, said suit adapted to be removed from a wearer only by tearingthe suit when the opening slit is sealed whereby reuse of the suit isrendered im-' possible.

2. A protective suit according to claim 1 in which at least a partialregion at the perimeter of the sleeve ends of the coat a furtheradhesive strip is provided having a protective adhesive foil which onremoval from the adhesive strip, the strip constitutes a nomdetachablefastening of the sleeve end folded to seal around the wrist of thewearer, said sleeve ends opened when the sleeve strip is sealed only bytearing the sleeve.

3. A protective suit according to claim 1, further comprising a hoodwith a neck-covering extension piece having overlapping front ends, oneof said ends having an adhesive strip providing a non-detachable closurefor said hood, said hood removed when the front ends are sealed only bytearing the ends of the hood.

4. A protective suit according to claim 1 in which said disposablematerial is paper.

5. A protective suit according to claim 4 in which the paper isreinforced with plastics.

6. A protective suit according to claim 1 in which said adhesive stripis provided on the outside of the protective suit.

7. A protective suit according to claim 4 in which said paper is coloredwith a color psychologically relaxing to animals.

1. A protective suit of disposable material comprising a coat having acontinuous adhesive strip in the vicinity of one edge of the openingslit of the coat, said strip being covered by a removable protectiveadhesive foil, the strip constituting a nondetachable closure for thepressed-together edges of said opening slit after said foil has beenremoved, said suit adapted to be removed from a wearer only by tearingthe suit when the opening slit is sealed whereby reuse of the suit isrendered impossible.
 2. A protective suit according to claim 1 in whichat least a partial region at the perimeter of the sleeve ends of thecoat a further adhesive strip is provided having a protective adhesivefoil which on removal from the adhesive strip, the strip constitutes anon-detachable fastening of the sleeve end folded to seal around thewrist of the wearer, said sleeve ends opened when the sleeve strip issealed only by tearing the sleeve.
 3. A protective suit according toclaim 1, further comprising a hood with a neck-covering extension piecehaving overlapping front ends, one of said ends having an adhesive stripproviding a non-detachable closure for said hood, said hood removed whenthe front ends are sealed only by tearing the ends of the hood.
 4. Aprotective suit according to claim 1 in which said disposable materialis paper.
 5. A protective suit according to claim 4 in which the paperis reinforced with plastics.
 6. A protective suit according to claim 1in which said adhesive strip is provided on the outside of theprotective suit.
 7. A protective suit according to claim 4 in which saidpaper is colored with a color psychologically relaxing to animals.